The Nesting Bald Eagles Of Smith Rock State Park Oregon. A short film by George Lepp.

In the April issue of OP, we ran the Eagle Eyes article by George Lepp where he detailed how he photographed and recorded a pair of bald eagles over a period of 12 weeks from hatching to fledging. In the article, which you can see here if you missed it in print, Lepp shared how he was able to get this extraordinary collection of photos and he detailed the gear that was required. The project involved shooting still images as well as full motion video. The finished video can be viewed here:

The nest was 200 feet out from a cliff which gave Lepp the opportunity photograph from an unobstructed vantage point as the pair of adults hatched and raised their eaglets into full fledged eagles. Even with the rare vantage point, Lepp needed some extreme focal lengths to get these incredible close-up views. He used Canon telephoto lenses and tele-extenders to get as much as 4800mm for some shots!

2 Comments

Wonderful video and stills of the eagles. We have a local eagle nest that the Rapture Resource Center has a video camera mounted in the tree to monitor the eagles and their nest. It is very interesting to watch the interaction of the eagles with their young as they develop and how they handle the extreme weather conditions. Thank you for sharing your video and your extreme telephoto techniques!

When I first saw this article in the print version of OP, I thought the location looked familiar but I don’t recall seeing it in the article. Then I saw it again in the online version and I was right. Central Oregon. I’ve been to Smith Rock SP many times and I was struck by the many things there were to see for photographers, not just the rock climbers hanging off the walls. The photography and video in the article were an inspiration to us all.